The European Commision has launched a “ERC Synergy Grant” to enable substantial advances at the frontiers of knowledge, stemming, for example, from the cross-fertilization of scientific fields, from new productive lines of inquiry, or new methods and techniques, including unconventional approaches and investigations at the interface between established disciplines.
The aim is to provide support for a small group of two to four Principal Investigators to jointly address ambitious research problems that could not be addressed by the individual Principal Investigators and their teams working alone.
Funding Information
Synergy Grants may be awarded up to a maximum of EUR 10 000 000 for a period of 6 years.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible Principal Investigators
Principal Investigators may be of any age and nationality and may reside in any country in the world at the time of the application.
A Synergy Grant Group must be made up of a minimum of two and a maximum of four innovative and active Principal Investigators and, as necessary, their teams.
One of the Principal Investigators must be designated as the Corresponding Principal Investigator, who will be the administrative contact point on behalf of the group.
Principal Investigators funded through an ERC Synergy grant shall spend a minimum of 30% of their working time on the ERC project and a minimum of 50% of their working time in an EU Member State or Associated Country except for a Principal Investigator hosted or engaged by an Institution outside the EU Member States or Associated Countries.
The ERC actions are open to researchers of any nationality who intend to conduct their research activity in any EU Member State or Associated Country.
Eligible Host Institution
The host institution(s) (Applicant Legal Entity/ies)) – up to four host institutions – must engage and host the Principal Investigators for at least the duration of the project, as defined in the grant agreement. It must either be established in an EU Member State or Associated Country as a legal entity created under national law, or it may be an International European Interest Organisation (such as CERN, EMBL, etc.), the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) or any other entity created under EU law.
Any type of legal entity, public or private, including universities, research organisations and undertakings can host Principal Investigators and their teams.